The New York Times speculates that the current shortage in US Apple Stores could be about manipulating sales figures ahead of Apple's financials, due at the end of this month, with iPhones being diverted to AT&T partner stores instead.

Reselling iPhones abroad

Others have argued that Apple could also be facing production problems and / or a rush of buyers who are taking advantage of the weak US dollar, by snapping up iPhones and selling them abroad.

None of which quite explains why O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores in the UK and elsewhere are currently over-run with iPhones. T-Mobile in Germany is even knocking out the 8GB iPhone for €99 a throw, with a €29 per month price plan. The offer runs until June 30th, which happens to tie in nicely with the most realistic launch date for a 3G iPhone.